‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 788

Danni shows off her subtlety...

18 Comments

Huh. Hadn’t thought of that, because he probably didn’t expect Danni to take the blow, too. IIRC he killed Kat because he wanted Tenka to not suspect her of being her by making her come across as not invincible, but who knows what she would’ve done if Danni hadn’t jumped in with a seemingly meaningless move.

In hindsight it’s obvious, so it’s good to get a different perspective.

Apropos: I wonder how Danni’s parents are doing now, now that Danni has been earning her own money.

Yeah, he killed Kat because she was winning too much, despite the extreme environmental disadvantage to Erbana players – already an unpopular class to play as – which would have soon raised the wrong eyebrows.

This isn’t the first time Danni has pointed out to Bandit that his perspective of the entire forest has made him lose focus on the individual trees. He’s doing a great job of creating lots of collateral damage from his attempts to save the world.

Danni really does have a great point, here. Bandit has been outwardly nothing but “better than thou” towards her from the start. Even if he has “genuine reasons,” it’s still no excuse for his terrible behavior and attitude. So, Danni has no reason to believe that Bandit cares, and I don’t see anything Bandit could say that would change Danni’s mind.

Presumably Bandit’s response ought to be:
“I know her risk, and your risk for that matter, better than either of you do. If it would help anything to let you see the whole picture, I’d do it in an instant, but it won’t, so instead I’m stuck fighting everyone around me just to save them from themselves.”

actually there is no indication that he knows how life or death her situation is.

So? Bandit’s motivations actually are to help, and he honestly believes he knows better than anyone else. Even if he’s wrong, it would be the in-character response. And he might very well know. It wouldn’t change his behavior one way or the other, because he actually is trying to help.

Danni does bring up a good point. Bandit doesn’t actually consider other people’s feelings. Sure he’s GOOD at manipulating people, in that he knows how to play a role. It’s probably something he’s done his entire life.

First he was the perfect son.
Then he was the perfect playmate.
The perfect friend.
The perfect scapegoat.
The perfect player.
Someone relatable.
Someone invincible.
Someone to be looked at.

It’s something he does. It’s something the Dude does. It’s why specifically THEY are put into the game, because they’re good at playing to the crowd, to doing what they need to so they can project and accomplish their goals.

But that makes them terrible, just in general, at considering people who are acting for real.

In a sense Danni is the only person in their group who isn’t simply acting a role. Danni is herself, that is why she has low ratings. She’s too real and that breaks the fantasy of the game which is for all intents purposes a tv show. Eventually, people MIGHT like her because of how real she is. They’ll like that she CAN succeed even though she isn’t fulfilling a niche and is just acting as herself. But for the moment they’re only eating what they can because they’re trying to live out a fantasy to distract themselves from how terrible the real world is.

It also doesn’t help that that the Bandit doesn’t actually understand that Danni in her case, has a literal deadline because unlike most people who’s lives will nebalusly end if they lose their place in the game, her life will instantly and ACTIVELY end if she loses her place in the game. His value as a person is only tentatively connected to his performance in the game. Her value as a person is LITERATELY only in her ability to be in the game.

But he doesn’t know that, he’s never asked.

He did try to ask her, and she refused to talk about it.

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-655/

He didn’t ask when he killed her – he asked after that.

Also, he asked “You’re not in a good position in your City, are you?”, not “Why do you *need* the game?”

That only makes sense out of context. He asked her about that when she was upset about the AIs he designed causing her friend to overwork herself to death and only when she made note about the fact the resources she uses just to keep living is selfish of her to use when it can help other people.

She might have had a moment of clarity, she was upset so was it no wonder she shut him down.

I love Danni, she’s great. You write her well.

I agree 100%! Danni’s been growing on me for a while now. 🙂

Yeat! Danni is so great! She provides such an important human scale perspective to a group with such warped (for good reasons to be fair to them) senses of scale.

Bandit is taking the wrong path in this dialogue with Danni, that’s for sure.
Her and Kat lost their Esones because of him.

I’m sure Danni will soon point out that he won’t be dealing with permanent death because HE STILL HAS HIS ESONE while they lost theirs BECAUSE OF HIM.

As to Bandit helping to train her in higher gravity, I doubt anyone other than himself sees that as charitable or philanthropic, but rather as skilling up a team member so they don’t derail his glory train. (Or however you want to phrase it.)

Bandit may be smart, and able to manipulate people to an extent, but he doesn’t come across as having any kind of real understanding of other peoples emotions and motives outside of nasty or self serving ones. It’s like he’s a sociopath, or plays one so well he’s forgotten how not to be a sociopath.

Pretty sure Danni is aware that Bandit lost his esone, what with his ghosty form appearing in front of her a few moments ago. So in terms of permanent death potential, Bandit is in the same boat as Danni right now. Though I wouldn’t mind seeing her kick him again. d:

Aw crud! I totally forgot that the snowman ambush ganked him too.
Well, there goes the entire idea that he still has an Esone.
No idea how that incident slipped. Thanks for the reminder 🙂

Contrast Danni helping Kat with training in the very beginning of the series – pragmatic, in need of a partner, offering explanations and help with only minimal expectations in return – with Bandit helping Danni – which came with the implicit expectation that she’d forgive him, confide in him, and generally be easy to manipulate in order to get closer to Kat.

I adore her calling him on it, basically.

I am SO glad Danni’s finally calling out this tendency Bandit has to assume he’s the only person in the room with real problems-or real solutions!

Not A Villain Webcomic

Webcomic of a semi- reformed hacker trying to redeem herself in a post- apocalyptic world she may have created.

‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 788